The Akron Legal News

Man who raped, strangled elderly woman loses appeal

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 21, 2014

The 9th District Court of Appeals recently affirmed the judgment of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas which found Devon Owens guilty of aggravated murder, two counts of rape and aggravated burglary.

The lower court sentenced Owens to life in prison without parole for the murder and imposed 10-year prison terms for each of the three other convictions.

On direct appeal, Owens raised several issues including whether his offenses should have merged for sentencing.

The 9th District reversed and remanded the case for the Summit County court to consider whether the offenses should merge pursuant to Ohio’s Supreme Court ruling in State v. Johnson.

The trial court held a hearing and subsequently found Owens’ offenses were “separate and distinct,” upholding the earlier sentence.

Owens appealed a second time arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by ruling that the counts did not merge.

He contended that all three offenses should have merged because they were of similar import and he committed them with a single animus.

“The record reflects that the state presented evidence at trial that Mr. Owens committed the crimes of rape first and then the crime of aggravated murder,” wrote Presiding Judge Carla Moore on behalf of the court of appeals. “The crimes were committed with separate conduct and with a separate animus.”

According to case summary, Owens was discovered sitting on his victim’s bed in a state of partial undress.

He had raped 73-year-old C.W., violated her with a butter knife and then strangled her to death.

C.W.’s granddaughter and her granddaughter’s boyfriend discovered the body and found Owens sitting beside her. Owens fled through a bedroom window and disappeared.

A citizen’s tip in response to a composite sketch led police to Owens, who was arrested when a DNA sample he provided matched samples obtained from the crime scene.

The three-judge appellate panel found that Owens first committed the rape and then committed the aggravated murder when he manually strangled C.W.

“Further, Mr. Owens’ statement that he was C.W.’s ‘boyfriend’ could strengthen the position that the rapes and murder occurred with a separate animus: He raped C.W. for sexual gratification, and then strangled her to cover up the rapes,” wrote Judge Moore.

The court of appeals reviewed the trial testimony of Dr. Lisa Kohler, the chief medical examiner in Summit County, who stated that C.W. died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation and that, prior to her death, she was vaginally and anally raped.

“There is no evidence in the record suggesting that the acts of rape, as horrendous as they were, contributed to the death of C.W.,” wrote Judge Moore.

Kohler also testified that she could not specify the time interval between the rapes and murder, nor could she say that they happened at the same time, leading the trial court and appellate panel to conclude that they were committed separately.

The court of appeals proceeded to consider whether the rape and aggravated burglary charges should have merged for sentencing.

“The evidence in the record indicated that a struggle ensued between Mr. Owens and C.W. when he entered her apartment on May 28, 2010,” wrote Judge Moore.

A crime scene detective testified at trial that C.W.’s oxygen tank was found at the front door with its tubing running down the hall to the bedroom, her overturned slippers were found next to a pair of sunglasses mid-way down the hall on the floor and the body was found on the bed.

The appellate panel held that the evidence demonstrated that Owens committed aggravated burglary when he entered C.W.’s apartment and attacked her, causing C.W. to leave her oxygen tank at the front door and lose her slippers.

“The rapes occurred subsequent to this attack and prior to C.W.’s death,” wrote Judge Moore.

The court concluded that the rape and burglary charges did not merge and likewise found that the burglary and murder charges were committed separately.

“Therefore, based upon the record before us, we cannot say that the trial court erred in finding that Mr. Owens’ convictions for aggravated murder, aggravated burglary and rape should not merge,” wrote Judge Moore.

The Summit County court’s judgment was affirmed with judges Jennifer Hensal and Eve Belfance joining Judge Moore to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Owens, 2014-Ohio-1394.

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